


The Young Vanguard's Worst Slumber Party Ever

by Ham_Hocks



Category: Masks: A New Generation (Roleplaying Game)
Genre: F/F, Gen, hanna barbera is going to sue the crap out of me, more gay yearning than you can shake a stick at, the masks fandom's leading source for elk noises content
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-10-29
Updated: 2020-11-05
Packaged: 2021-03-09 00:41:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 7
Words: 18,396
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27275857
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ham_Hocks/pseuds/Ham_Hocks
Summary: The Young Vanguard's impromptu slumber party goes awry when a malicious spirit attacks Tark Tower, separating the team and drawing them into a battle for their souls.*This story was originally written in early 2018, and is being re-released on AO3
Kudos: 1





	1. An Unfamiliar Tune

“This blows!” Diana’s voice echoed across the empty common room that the Vanguard shared. “I can’t believe Rory and Lichen get to go do cool shit in South America, and we’re stuck babysitting.”

“Technically,” Windswept replied as she leafed through a binder labeled INEFFECTIVE SUPERVILLAINY PLOTS, 05-06, “it’s Central America. Oaxaca is in Mexico.”

“Thanks for refreshing my geography knowledge.” Diana, otherwise known as Flashpoint, six feet tall and wearing a loose tank top, joggers, and sneakers, ran her hands through her hair for the fifth time in ten minutes. “How come they get to go down there and we’re stuck here, again?”

“I believe Rory’s words were, ‘Lichen may be able to negotiate with the sapient moss, and I’m a shareholder in the company that owns the factory that it’s taken over.’ And we’re not ‘babysitting.’ You heard what happened to Kid Vicious last week.”

“Yeah, he’s missing. So are Selkie and the Freaky Phantom. And they all went missing when they were out on patrol, and the kids are four floors above us, safe and sound, so why do we have to be down there, again? I had plans tonight.”

“Diana, what plans could you possibly have for a Thursday night?”

“I was going to get drunk and catch up on The Q Word, thanks. And why are you in uniform?” Windswept was still in her jumpsuit, her scarf flitting about easily as she darted from bookshelf to table to counter to windowsill to lamp to television to refrigerator, adjusting things as she went.

“I’m in my suit because we don’t know what may happen tonight. Try to be prepared, and be a responsible adult for a couple hours. This is fun! We can hang out with the kids.” Windswept paused, an extremely rare thing for her to do, and looked up at Diana. “Do they still say that? ‘Hang out’?”

“Yeah, you’re fine. Look, here’s how tonight’s going to go: we’re going to get down there, Pippa is going to start liveblogging the ‘OMG-Superhero-Slumber-Party-exclamation-point,’ Getup is going to stay in his room the entire time because he’s an antisocial little twerp, Beep Boop is going to google whatever weird prompts the other kids give her and probably wind up playing ten hours of elk bugling noises because she doesn’t know any better, and Paige is going to have a riveting evening of, I don’t know, scrapbooking planned for us.”

“That’s not true.”

“Well, why don’t we go down there, and we’ll see for ourselves?”

The Tark Tower’s elevators moved fast, and Windswept could barely get in a knowing smirk at Diana before the doors opened. “See?” Windswept said as they walked into The Daycare. “Normal. This is fine. We’re going to have-”

“Oh! Flashpoint!” The pair was suddenly pushed apart by Pippa. “Can you and Windswept take a selfie with me? The fans are going to love this.”

“Sure,” Diana said, exuding manufactured grace. “Here, you want me to take it? My arms are longer.”

“Absolutely!”

Diana held up the phone and immediately arranged herself in a way that captured her best angles, suddenly a model again. “Say ‘slumber party!’” The resulting photo was glowing for both her and Pippa, although Windswept appeared to be struggling to stay in frame. “Here you go,” Diana said, returning Pippa’s phone. “Don’t take any candids of me if it looks like I have a double chin.”

“Gotcha!” Pippa trotted away, happily typing, as Beep Boop straightened up on the couch.

“Flashpoint! Windswept!” She hopped over the arm of the couch and rushed over to them, her hands anxiously gathered at her chest. “Hey, sorry to impose, but I have a question for you both.”

“Absolutely,” Windswept replied, squaring her shoulders. “You can ask me anything.”

“Getup asked me to look up ‘Tide Pods,’ and I did, but… why are people eating them? Because I googled their chemical makeup, and it is  _ super _ not safe to ingest.”

“I… Well…” Windswept sputtered, before Diana gently laid a hand on her arm.

“Beep Boop, one of the fun parts of growing up is learning that people are idiots.”

“So they willingly do things that will hurt them?”

“Absolutely.”

“Why?”

“For validation from internet strangers.”

“I see. Thank you! This was informative!” Beep Boop then produced an electronic chime to signify that she was happy, and went back to the couch. It was then that Paige emerged from her room.

“Diana!” Paige rushed over and hugged her mentor. “This is so cool! We don’t really get to hang out with Vanguard members.”

“See?” Windswept whispered, elbowing Diana.

“I know, kid.” Diana ruffled Paige’s hair. “What are you up to tonight?”

“Well, I used my allowance to buy some modge podge, and I’ve got some magazines out, so I thought I’d roll up my sleeves and do some heavy-duty arts and crafts tonight! It’s just a shame Ian is holed up in his room, ‘working on another song.’ Like yeah, great, but I’m going to be killing the game at decoupaging tonight!”

“That’s great,” Diana replied, her smile actually genuine. “What are we gluing this stuff to?”

“Well, I’ve got some votive candle holders, and I’m like, ‘Mother’s Day,’ right? So-”

Suddenly, and with an audible  _ click! _ from above, the lights went out. For a moment, the Young Vanguard headquarters was shrouded in darkness, save for the ambient light from Halcyon City below. And then, Diana’s shoulders lit up, her head wreathed in flame. “Is everybody okay?” She asked, moving into the center of the room. As she spoke, Beep Boop lit up as well, her chassis glowing with blue light, intermingling static on the walls with the dancing red tones that Diana produced.

“What just happened?” Paige asked, her voice shaky.

“The power’s out. Hey! Kids!” Diana’s voice was suddenly loud and authoritative. “Get in the common room! And I mean now!”

“Would you stop yelling?” A nasal voice shouted from the other end of the common area. After a moment, The Getup Noise stalked out, his headphones hanging around his shoulders. “What happened? I was in the middle of a good drop, and I just lost it!”

“If you had bothered to listen to the yelling you’re bitching about, I had said that the power was out,” Diana shot back.

Windswept held up her phone, and frowned. “Flashpoint, the WiFi’s down, too. Beep Boop, can you try to figure what’s going on here?”

“Sure!” Beep Boop hopped to her feet. “Let me try to access the tower’s security protocols, and then I can--” her voice was cut short as she short-circuited, sparks shooting across the common room.

“What was that!?” Getup screeched.

“Something is blocking me!” Beep Boop cried, clutching her hands to her head. “I don’t--I can’t--I can’t! I can’t! I _caaaaaaaaaaaaa_ ~” her voice was suddenly rising, becoming lost in a series of mechanical beeps.

“Beep Boop!” Windswept knelt, laying her hands over Beep Boop’s. “Beep Boop! Follow my voice. Beep Boop, listen to me.”

_“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA̸̧̰̒̅̄A̵̢͔͔͙̲͉̘̖̤̲̲͇͕̓̌̅̃͋̔͜͝A̷̧̰͕͎͌͛̒̿̔͂̃̿̄̌̕̚͝͠͝Ẫ̷̛̮̪͎͙͔͕̣̺̣̮̟̩̂͝͝A̵̡̘̖͊̃͛̑̽̐̓̎́̂̅A̶͇̭̘͇͙͕̅̅̇͆̎͒͊͐͐͝A̶̧̨̖͚͙͚͙̟̟̼̹͑̒͐́̒̉͑̃́͂̒͋̂͠A̷̮̺̪̮̟̗̙͔̤̥̖͍͚̥͊́͂̒̋̉̿͌̏̅̑ͅA̴͖̬͉̮̦͔͈̺͑͌͋̋A̸̡̦̮̯͎̩͔̫̾̚̚͝A̷̧̨̳͕͚̠̖͖̺͚͈̯͔̰̔̂A̵̡̧̛̻͕̻̞̙͕͕͈̼̲͉̦͐̋̈́̔̓̎͂̿̓̾̿͠A̶̧̩͎̒̆̔͛̓̊͆͛͛̋͘Â̶̻̼̔̊͗̆̒̉͛̒̈͋͐̍̔͜A̷̧̯̰̺̙̹̤̯̟̫͗̒̏́̈́͛̈̇̔̈̃͘̕͜Ą̴̢̡̢̗̯̭̪͇͉͌̌̈̏̇̐̓Ã̷̠̫̉̐̅̎͒̀̈́̚A̸̡̻̱̬̼̥̓̃̊̾͆Ă̵̛͈͔̠̬͚͎͂̔̓̽́̑̀̈́̿͛̕ͅA̷̢̡͚̞̤͇̭̼̟̤̋͐͂A̸̢̺̝͕̪͙̺̺͚̋͑͆̈́͐͆̀̀̈̑̊͝͠A̶̛̝͈͓̹̠̝̟͋̅̈́͠~̵͎͔͎̫͕͚͚͓̮̪̓͛͜ͅ”̴̢͈̹͓̦̜͈̯̘̤̠̦͒̏͛̽̒̀͆͆͋̓̐̿̃̚ͅ_ Beep Boop’s high, tinny scream resonated through the room.

“Beep Boop!” Windswept shouted. “Cancel search! Play ten hours of elk bugling!”

And suddenly, the high-pitched keen of elk filled the common room. Beep Boop reeled back, cognizant. “What was that?” She asked.

“Something hacked the network,” Windswept whispered. “It’s in the tower. Beep Boop, do you have a firewall protocol?”

“Yes?”

“Activate it, and get offline. Something is in the system. Girl Monday!” Windswept craned her head up to the ceiling as she invoked Rory Tark’s digital assistant. “Lock down the fifty-sixth floor of the tower, and run a diagnostic of--”

Girl Monday responded as if she were in the middle of a lullabye, her voice suddenly human, her tune atonal and wandering. Diana felt her hair stand on end.

_ SLEEP MY LITTLE DARLING ONE, _ Girl Monday continued.

_ GRANDMA WITCH IS OUTSIDE _

_ HER HAND IS RESTING ON THE DOOR _

_ CLOSE YOUR EYES, MY LOVE _

“Look, I could probably sample this,” Getup said, his voice suddenly uneasy, “but before I do… does anyone know what this is?”

“Get in the fucking common room,” Diana replied, her eyes wide. “Circle formation. Now.”

_ THERE’S A WOLF OUTSIDE YOUR DOOR, _ Girl Monday sang,  _ SHE IS LOOKING AT YOU _

“Diana,” Windswept whispered, her voice shaking. “I know who this is.”

_ HER FEET ALIGHT UPON THE FLOOR, _ Girl Monday sang in a shaky soprano,  _ COMING TO YOUR BED _

“Diana,” Windswept continued, “we have to go. We have to get out of here.”

“Why?” Diana asked, her arms extended over Paige and Pippa.

“I know who this is,” Windswept repeated, her voice grave.

_ GRANDMA WOLF IS IN YOUR ROOM, _ Girl Monday sang,  _ WATCHING WHILE YOU SLUMBER _

“Her name is Baba Yaga,” Windswept whispered, as the voice began to lose its rhythm. “She… she takes children.”

“Children,” Diana whispered.

“Kid Vicious,” Windswept replied in sudden realization.

_ IF YOU WAKE WHILE SHE IS HERE,  _ Girl Monday sang,  _ SHE WILL EAT YOU WHOLE _

“Getup,” Diana growled, “you’re the sound guy, right? Tell me where that song is broadcasting from.”

“I-I can’t!” Getup had his hands spread, his brow furrowed in concentration. “It’s coming from-from everywhere!”

_ GRANDMA WOLF IS HERE,  _ Girl Monday began to chant.  _ HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE _

“Stop!” Paige shouted, clutching her head. “Please, stop!”

“Get behind me.” Diana gently shepherded Paige against her back, her hand still on her arm. “Beep Boop, Getup, Pippa, you guys need to be ready, okay? I need you ready to hit this thing.”

“I can do that too!” Paige protested.

“No, Paige, you’re not in your suit. You need to be ready with arm hammers and knees, okay? Just like we practiced. Arm hammers and knees. No explosions.”

_ CLOSE YOUR EYES, MY BABY,  _ a voice was suddenly very close.

“Fuck!” Diana responded.

_ IF YOU LOOK, I’LL EAT YOU _

“Fuck you!” Diana shouted, a sudden wreath of fire rising around the circled Young Vanguard.

“Flashpoint,” Windswept said, “we need to get downstairs. If we get to the hangar, their suits are there, and the evac vehicle is there, too.”

“Power’s out,” Diana replied, her voice rough. “You got a workaround for that?”

_ LOOK AT ME,  _ Girl Monday’s voice was rising into a raw scream.  _ LOOK AT ME, I’M HERE, _

_ I’M HERE, I’M HERE, _

_ I’M HERE, I’M HERE,  _

_ I’M HERE _

“Tell me you have a workaround for this!” Diana screamed.

  
  
  


**I̶̳̗͆̒̈́͊̏͋͊͌͜'̶͔̩̠̟̄̅̌M̴̡̯̖̜̠̼̼͓͍̻̭̱̈́̽͒̾̓͗̍̈̽͆̊͋̿̚̕ͅ ̵̳̻̓̓̉͌͒̂̈́͛̕ͅȞ̵̼͓̻͖͚͎͇͓̩̭͉̯̗̺̋̌̐̐͌̽̊͜͠Ë̸̡̨̨̢̫̰͖͓̱͕̟̩̏̿͋͆͒̀̉́̏͑͋̚͠ͅͅR̵̡͚͎̻̰̯̆̓̓̒̄̇̎͌͑̚͘͘͜͝E̷͎͐**

  
  
  


And then, there was a breeze. That was what Flashpoint and Windswept would say it felt like later: a sudden gust of wind that hit them in the gut, knocking them prone, as a discordant screech filled the air.


	2. Going Down

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> "Niahm" is pronounced "Nieve," and boy is her girlfriend going to be pissed when she comes home after all this - do you know how worried sick she's been!?

The Getup Noise (that was his full superhero name, Flashpoint, thanks) was the first one to wake up. He suddenly realized he was breathing, and immediately he sat up, the air sour and filmy in his nose. “Hello!?” He shouted, although he probably didn’t, because let’s be real, he was way cooler than that.

“Hey! Hey.” Getup felt a hand on his shoulder and turned to see a young woman, her brown eyes soft and wide and her brown hair greasy and stringy. “You’re okay. You’re okay, yeah? What’s your name?”

“I’m The Getup Noise?” Getup replied, reflexively indignant. “Who are you?”

“Selkie. Well, it’s actually Niamh, but you’d probably know me by the first one.” As Getup’s eyes adjusted, he saw two other people lingering behind her. All three of them had sallow complexions, and bags hung heavy under their eyes. “Pleased to meet you, Getup Noise.”

“Selkie?” Getup scooted back. “You’re missing.”

“I am. And I guess you are too, now.” She smiled weakly. “Who are your friends?”

“Friends?” Getup looked over in time to see Pippa sit up, clutching their head. Beyond Pippa, Paige lay motionless. Their surroundings looked to be a small hut. The walls were plain wood, and the ceiling above them had bundles of drying herbs suspended from the rafters. With the exception of a small table, it was bereft of furniture. “Oh, crap. Pippa!”

“Yeah, I’m fine, thanks for asking.” Pippa shook their head. “I feel like I got hit by a truck. What happened?”

“If it was anything like what happened to us, you heard a creepy lullaby and then woke up here,” a young man in a studded leather jacket said. “Hi. I’m Kid Vicious.”

“Your friend here looks out of sorts,” said the third boy; a young black man wearing an armored take on a tailsuit. He was kneeling beside Paige. “She may have had a rougher landing than you two.”

“Crap,” Getup groaned, stumbling to his feet. “Can you see if she’s okay? Oh my god, Flashpoint is going to kill us if she’s hurt.”

“Let me see.” Selkie gently knelt over Paige and shook her shoulder. After a moment, Paige awoke with a gasp and began coughing. “Hi,” Selkie said gently, smiling down at her. “You’re okay.”

“My head,” Paige whined.

“It probably hurts a lot, but you’re safe. I’m going to ask you some questions, okay? What’s your name?”

“Paige,” Paige moaned.

“That’s a pretty name. Do you have a superhero name?”

“Boom!,” Paige replied.

“Boom!. That’s good.” Selkie laughed softly. “Do you know Getup and Pippa?”

“We’re on a team,” Paige said softly. “Young Vanguard. Where’s… where’s Beep Boop? Where’s Diana? And Windswept? Are they okay?”

Selkie looked over at Getup questioningly. Now that he thought about it, Beep Boop was nowhere to be found. Neither were Flashpoint or Windswept. “Crap,” he repeated. “I guess they didn’t get transported here. Hey, speaking of which, where is ‘here’?”

“Yeah, it says I’m out of network,” Pippa said, looking at their phone. “No reception.”

“I wish we could tell you,” Kid Vicious said, helping Pippa to their feet. “The truth is, we don’t really know. We’ve been wandering around this place, and it’s like a hut, but it doesn’t end. You walk out the front door, and into another room.”

“Great, so I’m stuck in a hut that smells like a dirty fish tank for the rest of my life,” Getup groused. “I didn’t even bring my kit with me.”

“I don’t feel good,” Paige whimpered.

“None of us feel good!” Getup replied irately. “What the hell just happened to us!? And where is Beep Boop!?”

  
  
  


“Diana. Diana. Diana!”

Diana opened her eyes and saw Windswept hovering above her, her face panicked. “What…?” Diana asked weakly.

“Thank god. You have to get up. Now.” Diana felt herself being jerked to her feet. Her head swam, and she stumbled backwards before Windswept grabbed her arms and steadied her. “Diana, the kids are gone.”

“What?” Diana willed herself to attention. “What do you mean, they’re…?”

“Something hit us. I don’t know what, but it knocked us out. When I came to, Pippa, Getup, and Paige were gone.”

“Paige?” Diana asked, her voice suddenly shaky.

“Yes.” Windswept laid a hand on Diana’s shoulder, her expression grave. “I’m sorry. It’s you, me, and Beep Boop.”

Diana looked over at Beep Boop, who awkwardly waved. “What happened?”

“I don’t know. I came to, and they were gone. I had to do a system restore on Beep Boop. She doesn’t even remember the last ten minutes.”

“I perform a manual system backup every ten minutes!” Beep Boop volunteered. “I thought that would help me stay updated on any important developments. But Windswept was kind enough to let me know what happened. I’m ready to kill whatever did this to my friends!”

“Shit,” Diana whispered. “What about the tower?”

“Systems are still down. I can’t even get a distress signal out from here.”

“And this… what did you say her name was?”

“Baba Yaga,” Windswept replied, lowering her voice.

“She’s presumably still in the tower.”

“Presumably, yes.”

“Why didn’t she get Beep Boop?”

“Well… I am a robot,” Beep Boop replied softly. “She may not have recognized me as a child.”

Even though she felt sick, Diana recognized that that was a tough blow to take. “I’m sorry, kid.”

“Look, I can… I can deal with all of that later. Right now, I want to find my friends.”

“Windswept,” Diana said, running her hands through her hair, “you said we had to get down to the hangar. Is there a way to do that that doesn’t involve hotwiring the elevator?”

“Yes,” Windswept replied. “Rory put in a utility ladder that extends the length of the tower. We can use that to get to the hangar. From there, you and Beep Boop can suit up. But when we get down there, the access ladder to the maintenance deck is accessible to us as well. We may be able to manually restart the tower.”

“How good of a chance do we have of doing that?”

“Um, it depends if she’s just using Girl Monday to play her weird theme music. I do have the schematics on hand, but they’re on our floor.”

“Let me guess,” Diana said weakly. “Are they in a binder?”

“Oh, absolutely!”

“Great. Well, okay. Beep Boop, do you still have control of your flashlight function?”

“I do!” Beep Boop suddenly lit up. “But… I also have a question. If we move around the tower, will Baba Yaga attack us again?”

“Maybe. I don’t know.” Windswept shook her head. “We don’t have the kids anymore, and that seemed to be why she was interested in us.”

“Sure, we do.” A soft light rippled down Beep Boop’s body, replacing her robot chassis with a teenage girl, her curly black hair held back by a headband. “If she’s going off of sight, we can draw her out.”

“Do we want to do that?” Diana asked.

“Sure. I want to ask her where my friends are.” Beep Boop’s smile was forced, cold. “We should go.”

Diana looked at Windswept, who shrugged. “It’s going to be a long climb,” she said. “We need to get going.”

The hallway to the maintenance door loomed large in front of the trio, looking like a yawning mouth with the absence of any light. “Fuck this,” Diana muttered, and a long line of fire sprang up down the length of the hallway. She immediately staggered back, her head swimming. “Shit,” she muttered as Windswept steadied her.

“Don’t push yourself,” Windswept said, and Diana could feel her becoming aware of her hands at the base of her shoulders, followed by her hasty withdrawal. “We can get this sorted out when we get to the maintenance floor, and we’re going to move slower if you pass out.”

“I’m fine,” Diana snapped, jerking her arm out of Windswept’s hands. “The sooner we get to the hanger, the better. Let’s go.”

The hallway felt larger than it should have in the darkness, even with the light that Diana and Beep Boop threw off. Both of them stood nervously beside the service port as Windswept muscled it open, pulling the large steel door open and gently herding everyone onto the service deck for the fifty-sixth floor of Tark Tower. The narrow ladder was swallowed by the darkness beneath them, and, already attached to the guardrails, were several climbing harnesses. Diana peered over the rail, into the gaping dark below. “I ever tell you I have a thing about heights?”

“You’re afraid of heights?” Windswept asked, detangling a harness and tossing it to Beep Boop.

“No, I’m afraid of _falling_ from heights.”

“Well, strap in,” Windswept said, handing Diana a harness. “You don’t want to fall without one of these on.” She briskly clipped her harness to a guideline that extended onto a secondary carbon fiber that paralleled the ladder in its descent. It was held in place by a small, rectangular chassis with what looked like a spool to collect the excess rope, and a brake.

“Do we really have to?” Diana asked as Beep Boop happily suited up. “There’s no, I don’t know, service slide we can all ride down?”

“No, but if you lose your balance, you’ll be fine.” Windswept smiled encouragingly. “Each harness is outfitted with an accelerometer, so it’ll sense if you fall and slow your descent automatically. Neat, huh?”

“Depends. Do you think the power outage affected the accelerometers, too?”

Windswept paused. “Let’s try to not find out,” she finally said.

Diana huffed and rolled her eyes as she strapped into the climbing harness and began following Windswept and Beep Boop downward.


	3. Roaming Charges

“I mean it, I am going to be heated if I get dinged on roaming charges,” Pippa said, following Getup and Kid Vicious as they wandered down a narrow hallway. Selkie was escorting Paige, who stumbled every few steps, and the Freaky Phantom was beside Pippa, bringing up the rear. “I can’t even text Roxie.”

“Oh, my god. That’s right.” The Freaky Phantom looked at Pippa. “You’re Pippa, aren’t you? Like,  _ the  _ Pippa. Oh my god, my boyfriend loves your videos.”

“Well, it’s nice to know I have fans, even in places like these.” Pippa tossed their hair back. “When we get out of here, I’ll do an interview with you!”

“Oh my god. All of my friends are going to flip.”

“Well, since you watch Pippa’s stuff, you’re probably heard of me,” Getup interjected. “I’m the Getup Noise? I helped Pippa throw a sick warehouse rave recently? It was pretty cool. You probably saw it on the news.”

The Freaky Phantom had a blank look on his face. “Doesn’t ring a bell.”

“Look, I’ll link you to my soundcloud later. Once you hear my music, it’ll jog your memory.”

“So,” Selkie said gently as the group continued walking through rooms, “you said you were superheroes too, right? What are your powers?”

“Sound manipulation,” Getup replied. “Pippa can manipulate light. Paige can blow up stuff with her mind. Well, I think it’s actually like, a ‘cosmic energies’ thing she uses. I don’t know. Her suit helps her channel her powers better, because otherwise she can accidentally explode stuff. What about you guys?”

“Kid Vicious has super strength and durability. Phantom’s psychic, and I can manipulate water. Not really useful right now.” Selkie shrugged helplessly. “Kid Vicious and Phantom were solo. I’m with the Phalanx. Well, I was. I guess not so much, right now.” She sighed sadly. “My girlfriend has got to be worried sick about me.”

“Hey, we’re with the Vanguard. I think they worked with Phalanx a couple times,” Pippa volunteered.

“Yeah, they had to close up a rift to another dimension that opened over Halcyon, right? I think they called it the Cross-Over?”

“Oh, man” Kid Vicious said softly. “When I was out on patrol, I said I’d meet up with my girlfriend as soon as I got in. She… It’s been a while. Maybe she thinks I ditched her. I mean, that’s the best option, right?” He laughed joylessly. “I hope she’s okay.”

“You know,” Pippa said, “in spite of the name, you don’t actually seem that vicious.”

“Oh no, that’s just a moniker my old superhero mentor gave me. I actually volunteer with an animal rescue in my spare time! Me and my mom are fostering some kittens.” He frowned. “My mom’s got to be worried sick.”

“So how long have you guys been here?”

“I don’t know, actually. Time sort of runs together in here; I could have been down here for hours, or days. Selkie’s been here the longest.”

“She went missing almost a month ago,” Pippa replied. 

“Has it really been that long?” Selkie shook her head. “It doesn’t feel that long.”

“How have you guys been surviving?”

“Some of the rooms have food. I mean, it’s not great, but beggars can’t be choosers, right? We just have to keep moving.” The Freaky Phantom pushed open another bare wooden door, this one leading to a room that had a bare table and a dark fireplace. “Damn,” he muttered under his breath. “Sometimes the fireplaces are going. Your friend here could probably use it.”

“Have you seen her?” Pippa asked as the group entered what looked like a root cellar. “Baba Yaga, I mean.”

“She comes down here once in a while, wherever ‘here’ is. It’s strange; we can always hear her just on the other side of the wall. We try to keep moving so she can’t get a bead on us.”

“You can hear flies buzzing when she’s close.” Kid Vicious shuddered for effect.

“How do you feel?” The Freaky Phantom asked Paige. Probably about as good as she looked, Getup thought to himself. She was pale, and hanging off of Selkie for support. She really must have hit her head hard.

“Worse,” Paige said in a tiny voice. “Can we…? Can we stop for a second? I need to sit down.”

“Here.” Pippa helped Paige lean against the wall, their face knit with concern. Paige was trembling. “Guys, this is bad. I don’t know if she can go for much longer like this.”

“I don’t suppose Baba Yaga’s abducted any EMT’s recently,” Getup asked.

“How long do you think we can rest here?” Pippa asked.

“Not long. It’s never a good idea to stick around in these rooms,” Kid Vicious said softly, laying his studded jacket over Paige’s shoulders. “Here.”

“Hey, can you take a look at what’s in the next room?” Phantom asked Getup. “Maybe there’s a bed or something she can lie down on.”

“Sure.” And then, Getup’s finely-honed instincts to show off kicked in. “Hey Selkie, you asked me about my powers, right? Check this out.” He pointed at the wall, making a big show of lining up his flight path, took a step back, wound up, and phased out--

\--and phased facefirst into the wall with an audible  _ smack!  _ In the background, he heard Phantom suck in some air through his teeth.

“Oh, my goodness. Are you okay?” Selkie was doing a bad job of not smiling.

“Ow! Ow! Shit!” Getup stumbled away from the wall, holding his nose. “What the hell was that!?”

“Was that not intentional?” Selkie asked.

“No! I’m supposed to go  _ through  _ the wall, not into it! Let me try again.” Getup’s second attempt to phase through the wall was met with similar results as the first. So did his third attempt. And his fourth. “What is happening!?”

“Well, you just ran face first into a wall four times, to start,” Phantom said. “You know, the wall with the door that you could have used?”

“But I’m supposed to be able to do that! I’ve never not been able to phrase through walls before. I don’t know what’s going on! This is  _ so _ not cool!”

“Maybe this place is affecting your powers,” Selkie suggested. “It happened to Phantom, too.”

“Pippa,” Getup said, turning to face the only other lucid member of the Young Vanguard, “did this affect your powers too?”

“Dunno,” Pippa said, as a second Pippa materialized on Getup’s left side. “What do you think?” They asked as another one popped into existence to his right, inspecting their nails. 

“So we’re stuck in a House of Leaves situation, my powers are nerfed, and our main damage-dealer has what looks like debilitating head trauma. Am I missing anything?” Getup asked.

“Yeah,” Pippa said, their voice small, pointing at something lying in the corner of the room. “That.”

It was part of a small human skull, yellowed, hopefully, with age. Several longbones were lying next to it, splintered. There was a small radius of shattered glass and metal shards around it.

“Oh, shit,” he said softly.

“Oh,” Selkie said quietly “That’s new.”

“What happened here?” Pippa hissed.

“I don’t know. We’ve never seen anything like that before. Closest I can remember is that Phantom said he hears children in the distance. Sometimes it sounds like they’re playing. Other times…” Kid Vicious trailed off, his face grim. “We’d better get moving. Here.” He scooped up Paige in his arms. “Like I said, it helps if we keep switching rooms. Let’s…” He turned the knob, opened the door, and stopped. “Guys? We have a problem.”

“What now?” Pippa asked.

“That. In the next room.”

As the rest of the group crowded into the doorway, Getup could see, sitting in a small wooden chair in the corner of the room, a little girl. She was staring at them, unblinking.

  
  
  


“You know, I really don’t say this enough,” Diana remarked, following Windswept down the hallway to the Vanguard common room, “but I am very fond of electricity. You know? I’m just wild about working lights.”

“The first step is to get the schematics,” Windswept replied. “Once we do that, we can get downstairs and manually reboot the system. Beep Boop, how are you feeling?”

“Dark,” Beep Boop replied sadly. “I can’t see the rest of the world.”

“I’m sorry,” Windswept said gently. “Once we get this sorted out, we’ll get you back online.”

“I don’t even have anything backed up,” Beep Boop groused. “I only saved the ten hours of elk sounds.”

“Maybe we won’t ask you to DJ until we get the lights back on,” Diana said grimly.

The Vanguard’s common room was dark, just barely visible thanks to the light of the city. “Beep Boop,” Windswept asked, “can you shine a light here for me? I need to find the binder. Diana, keep an eye out.”

“Don’t have to tell me twice,” Diana said, rocking back and forth on the balls of her feet. In the aching silence of the common room, it was hard to ignore the worry that was gnawing at her. She’d lost Paige. She’d lost the other kids, too. She’d had one job, and she’d failed at it. What was she going to tell Rory and Lichen? What was she going to tell Paige’s parents?

Suddenly, Windswept’s hand shot out and slapped the bookshelf holding her binders, startling Diana out of her reverie. “Ah!” She shouted. “Jesus!”

“Sorry,” Windswept muttered. “There was a fly buzzing around. Diana, did you misalphabetize my binders again? I can’t find the schematics for the maintenance deck.”

“I don’t know. Maybe?” Diana frowned and swatted at a second fly buzzing around her head. Something in the room smelled off, but she couldn’t quite place it. The air circulation in the building was down; maybe it was just stagnation.

“Why do you do that?” Windswept asked, irate. “I know you only finished high school, but the alphabet is pretty basic stuff.”

“Hey, I don’t do it because I’m stupid; I do it because it’s funny watching you get flustered about misfiled binders.”

“It is not funny! And what is with these flies!?” Windswept swatted another one at super speed. “Who forgot to take out the garbage? You know, I took all that time to color code the chore spreadsheet, and—”

“Windswept, shut up for a second,” Diana said softly. “Do you hear that?”

In the yawning, cavernous darkness beyond the door, there was the sound of buzzing, growing closer. Now, Diana could smell it: the oily smell of putrefaction. It was as if a wave of stench was rolling into the room on the backs of flies.

“Find that binder,” Diana whispered.

“Can do,” Windswept squeaked, and shot across the bookshelf at top speed, her hands a blur as she began pulling down and opening binders. The sound of buzzing was growing closer, cacophonous.

“Keep the light steady for her,” Diana said to Beep Boop, moving in front of the girl, her hands outstretched.

“I can’t find it!” Windswept shouted behind Diana.

“Keep looking!” Heat billowed up from under Diana’s feet. The buzzing was almost at the threshold. “Come on, bitch,” Diana growled. Just as a dark, shifting mass began piling through the door, two jets of fire shot from Diana’s hands and engulfed a giant mass of flies. A howl of agony, sounding like the faraway scream of a woman lost in a blizzard, cut through the room.

“We really need to have a chat about the importance of organization when this is over!” Windswept shouted behind her.

“I think I get it!” Diana replied, advancing on the screaming pile of flies.

“I found it!” Windswept shouted. “I got it!”

Diana focused all of her energy into the fire, screaming in a mix of anger and concentration as she lit up the doorway in a solid wall of flames. After another few seconds, she lowered her arms and exhaled, and the room fell again into darkness and silence. There was a satisfying tingle in her fingertips. “That felt good,” Diana said, closing her eyes.

“Well, I hope you learned your lesson about proper filing,” Windswept remarked, popping next to her. “We should get moving while the path is clear.”

“For god’s sake. You don’t even know if that was me! It could have been anybody!” Diana walked across the common room, to where the wet bar was, and retrieved a half-finished bottle of Canuk Club from the bottom shelf.

Windswept wrinkled her nose. “Tell me you’re not bringing that.”

“Relax. This isn’t my drinking whiskey, it’s my fighting whiskey.”

“I don’t even want to know what that means. Let’s get going.”

“Say, can I take a crack at that lady the next time she shows up?” Beep Boop asked brightly as the trio made their way back to the emergency access shaft. “I want to see if ancient evil entities can get punched in the face the same way regular evil things do.”

“You can, but I think first I want to see Windswept clothesline her at sixty miles an hour.”

“Oh, hooray!” Beep Boop softly clapped her hands together. “Do you think it would be in poor taste if I recorded it and put it on the internet? I know it’s what Pippa would do.”

“Well, let’s ask Pippa when we get the kids back,” Windswept replied. Behind them, softly, several flies continued to buzz just above the ground.


	4. Homer and Fucking Langley

“So, um,” Getup asked, staring at the pallid girl, “is this something that happens here, too? Creepy children in sackcloth?”

“Not to my knowledge,” Kid Vicious replied.

“Hi,” Selkie said gently, edging into the room. “What’s your name, sweetheart? My name is Selkie. We’re superheroes, okay? We’re here to help.”

“I don’t know if that’s such a good idea,” Freaky Phantom said.

“Do you know how long you’ve been down here?” Selkie continued. “We’re going to get you out, okay? You’re safe.”

The girl cocked her head, looked at Selkie, and promptly disintegrated into a mass of crawling bugs. Selkie screamed and stumbled backward as the pile of insects dispersed, wriggling into the cracks on the walls and floor.

“Okay, I did not need to see that!” Pippa protested behind Getup. 

“Oh, this is good! Awesome!” Getup threw up his hands as some deep well of frustration finally broke open. “So, just recapping here: we’re stuck in some whacked-out House of Leaves situation in a Russian peasant hut, which we were taken to by some crazypants witch supervillain, we have no idea how to get out, or even where we are in the first place, Beep Boop, Flashpoint, and Windswept are missing, one of our friends is probably going to drop dead in the next ten minutes, we also have to deal with weird exploding bug children! Great! Great!”

“It does sound kind of hopeless when you put it like that,” said Freaky Phantom. “And god, now I feel itchy all over.”

“And what the hell is this lady’s game, anyway? She kidnapped us! What for!? Is she just going to keep us here so she can claim us as dependents on her taxes!?”

“I wish we could tell you,” Selkie said, frowning. “Maybe she’s a hoarder? Except instead of old magazines, it’s kids?”

“Yeah, well I don’t plan on reenacting Homer and fucking Langley for the rest of my life in here. We’re getting out. Hey! Paige!” Getup gently shook Paige’s arm and watched as her eyes flickered open. “We’re getting you help, okay? Just—please don’t die. I don’t want to get set on fire.”

“She really is fading fast,” Freaky Phantom said. “Man, I thought I had a bad reaction when I got in here.”

“What happened to you?” Pippa asked.

“It was like somebody stuffed cotton wool into my head; I couldn’t focus on anything. That’s the drawback of being psychic, I guess. This entire place set off my senses. It took me a couple days before I could scale it down and be functional again; I’m just lucky I had Selkie around to take care of me.”

“Wait.” Pippa looked up. “It was because you’re psychic?”

“Yeah. I’m really sensitive to ghosts, especially. And I’ve been in places that give me bad vibes, but seriously, nothing like what this did.”

“Maybe that’s what’s wrong with your friend.” Selkie looked over at Paige, who was covered in sweat. “You said her power comes from cosmic energy, right? What if the place we’re in is messing with that?”

“And that’s why Phantom had a bad reaction too,” Pippa continued, rubbing their chin. “This place obviously doesn’t follow any sort of natural rules we know. It’s like we’re stuck in a giant haunted house.”

“Not a house,” Selkie said, realization coming into her features, “like a pocket dimension, maybe? What if we’re not in a house at all; she’s got us stuck in some kind of construct that she’s manipulating to look like a house! That’s why Getup couldn’t zap through the walls—there’s literally no place for him to zap to.”

“Pretty  _ and  _ smart,” Pippa said, a little smile on their face.

Selkie blushed and looked down at her feet. “Th-thanks. I was in physics club.”

“Well, we better figure a way out of here, fast.” Kid Vicious brushed Paige’s bangs aside. She groaned softly. “She’s burning up.”

“We’re screwed,” Getup groaned. “Flashpoint is going to kill us. And before I ever got a chance to go platinum.”

“Let’s focus on the house. Phantom, do you think you can scale up your powers again?” Pippa asked. “If you do it gradually, you may be able to find some kind of weak point without getting overwhelmed.”

“I’ll give it a shot.” Phantom rolled up his sleeves and closed his eyes, his breathing measured and deliberate. After a moment, he grimaced. “Oh man. I forgot how unpleasant this is.”

“Can you feel anything?”

“I  _ feel _ uncomfortable. God, it’s like having a strong breeze rushing through your body, but the breeze is thousands of screaming voices.” He opened his eyes, and pointed. “If I had to give you a direction the breeze is coming from, it would be that way.”

“Well, let’s follow the breadcrumb trail.” Kid Vicious lifted up Paige. “Phantom, lead the way.”

“Wrong witch,” Getup said under his breath as the group surged forward.

  
  


“Did I ever tell you about the time I did a photo shoot that was like, ‘sexy OSHA’?” Diana asked as she continued her descent. Between her fire generation and Beep Boop’s flashlight mechanism, the three had decent light to work with as they continued descending the ladder that stretched down to the hanger. “I had to wear open-toe high-heeled workboots.”

“Fascinating,” Windswept replied from the bottom of the group.

“Well, we also had to wear harnesses like these, but they were more like, I don’t know, bathing suits? Not especially OSHA-compliant. Speaking of which, this entire situation we’re in right now doesn’t really feel OSHA-compliant, either. Have I mentioned that we’re still a long way up?”

“Yes, four or five times, now.”

“Okay. Just checking. Because we really are a long way up.”

“Don’t worry! I’ll catch you if you fall,” Beep Boop replied. “My chassis is capable of supporting 650 pounds. You’ve got to be well within that weight limit.”

“I think that’s considered rude to speculate about,” Windswept muttered.

“Thanks.”

“Of course,” Beep Boop continued, “if I were to lose my balance after that, we would presumably both fall, and the impact of the landing would kill us instantly.”

“Okay, that’s good. Thank you.”

“Well, it would kill  _ you  _ instantly. I’d be reassembled and brought back online at a later time.”

“I said  _ thank you _ , Beep Boop.”

“I think we only have about twenty more floors to go,” Windswept said. “We’re more than halfway there. We’ll be at the maintenance deck before you know it.”

From above the trio, there came a wet, raspy noise.

“Did you hear that?” Diana asked.

“I heard it.” Windswept answered.

“What do we do?” Diana whispered.

“Climb faster,” Windswept replied, and began moving down the ladder, double-time. Higher up the ladder, something shrieked.

“Right. Faster. Shit, she can’t be climbing the damn ladder, can she?” Diana asked, scrambling to keep up with Windswept and Beep Boop. “Can she do that? Climb ladders?”

“Let’s not find out!” Windswept replied.

As Diana tried desperately to marshall the will to descend the ladder, the rungs of which were sixteen inches wide at best, she made the poor decision to look up. There, illuminated dimly by the light, was a withered pale creature, climbing headfirst down the ladder, her arms splayed out, lizard-like, and her legs hidden in a cloud of flies.

“SHE CAN CLIMB LADDERS!” Diana screamed, and suddenly found the motivation to move faster.

“Come on! You can do this!” Windswept shouted. “Just! Go! Faster!”

“Super speed isn’t my thing, Windswept!”

Diana wanted to say something, wanted to ask Windswept if she had to work to be this insufferable or if it just came naturally, but then Baba Yaga was on her, screaming in her face with a mouth full of rotting teeth. What happened next seemed to play in slow-motion: Diana screamed, reeled backward out of instinct, jerked her hand away from Baba Yaga’s own broken fingernails, lost her balance, and tipped backwards.

“Diana!” Windswept shouted. As she fell past her, Diana saw Windswept reach out, desperate, but there was too much distance between her and Diana. As Baba Yaga slithered toward Beep Boop, Diana watched, horrified, as the robot looped the slackline of the harness around one hand, and jumped off the ladder as well. Unable to do anything else and desperate to put something between herself and Baba Yaga, Windswept swung her body out and squeezed behind the rungs on the opposite side of the ladder. Baba Yaga was on her, beating her fists against the ladder and shrieking as she tried to get to Windswept, who was still climbing lower. And, knowing this could be the last thing she’d ever do, Diana extended a hand, focused, and watched the Baba Yaga go up in flames.

And then, she jerked to a halt, swinging precariously from the slackline as the accelerometer happily chirped.

“Hey! Baba Yaga!”

Diana and Windswept both looked up to see Beep Boop swing from the slackline, her own accelerometer beeping, and Baba Yaga turned her attention to her just in time to watch Beep Boop extend both legs and kick her directly in the chest, knocking her off the ladder and sending her, screaming, into the void below.

“Aw, yeah!” Beep Boop shouted, swinging herself back onto the ladder. “That’s what you get!”

“Diana!” Windswept repositioned herself on the ladder and reached out again as Diana continued to swing. “Take my hand!”

Diana was able to angle herself toward Windswept, and thankfully, the torque generated by her brief fall and rapid stop gave her enough momentum to reach out and grab Windswept’s outstretched forearm. That was enough—the other woman hauled Diana onto the ladder where they both stood, clinging to the same rung, Windswept’s arm still around Diana’s waist to steady her. Diana’s breathing was hard and fast, and she was shaking.

“Are you okay?” Windswept asked.

Diana looked up at her, smiled, and Windswept realized that she had hazel eyes. Their faces were only a few inches apart. “Yeah,” she said, her voice shaky. “Nice catch.”

Windswept’s face and ears suddenly grew red.

“Hey!” Beep Boop shouted from above the pair. “Did you see that? That was awesome! Oh, also, are you okay?”

“I’m alright,” Diana answered. “Just a little shaken up. You did great, Beep Boop. That was good thinking.”

“Do you think she survived that?” Beep Boop asked.

“One of the things we know about her is that she can dematerialize to escape harm, so I’d say there’s a good chance.” Windswept shook her head. “She’s probably pretty mad, though.”

“You think she can hear us from wherever she landed?” Diana asked.

“Probably, if you yell loud enough.”

“Good. Hey, lady!” Diana shouted down into the void. “Your ass is grass, and I’m gonna mow it!”

“We should get going,” Windswept said. “Once we reset the system, we can get that distress call out to Rory and Lichen.” She gently removed her hand from around Diana’s waist. “S-sorry.”

“No need to apologize. You saved me.” Diana had a little half-smile on her face that was absolutely not helping Windswept’s blooming sense of confusion. “Come on. Let’s get moving.”


	5. Shock and Awe

Getup was not a person naturally prone to optimism, but he was beginning to think that, maybe, it was not just pessimism telling him the group was on a wild goose chase. They’d been wandering through rooms for hours now, and really had nothing to show for it except a series of increasingly strange encounters: there had been the skull and broken bones and the insect girl, but since they started following whatever psychic thread Phantom was pulling on, they’d run into a room full of half-rotted stuffed toys, a room with desiccated animals hanging from the ceiling, a room that had eight identical-looking ghost children playing ring around the rosy, all of whom immediately collapsed into dust on their entry, and, now, a room that looked like someone had converted a Russian peasant hut into a home office.

“Guys, can we stop? I’m sorry.” Sweat was running down Kid Vicious’ brow. “I need to put her down for a second. She’s burning up.” In his arms, Paige was dripping sweat, and her veins were plainly visible, bulging blue against her pallid skin. She was shaking.

“Look, how much worse is she now? Let me—” Pippa reached out and touched their fingers to Paige’s forehead, and there was the sound of sizzling. Pippa yanked their hand back. “Ow!”

“Yeah,” Kid Vicious said weakly. “Literally.”

“What is going on here!?” Selkie said, exasperated, as Kid Vicious laid Paige down on a moldered daybed. “I don’t get it!”

“Well, since we got down here, we have seen things get progressively worse,” Pippa volunteered, shaking their head. “That’s still progress, right?”

“Guys,” Phantom said, “have you taken a look around here? There’s notes.”

“Notes?”

“Yeah, like… math stuff. Check it out.”

Getup and Pippa approached the desk Phantom was looking at and saw that it was covered in piles of tabbed notebooks, sticky notes, pencils, and brownish coffee rings. If you ignored your immediate surroundings, it actually looked like a normal desk. It even had a corkboard mounted above it, papered over with more notes, movie ticket stubs, a crayon drawing of a winged unicorn, and two photos: the first looked as if it had been clipped from a magazine, and showed an older woman sitting on a chair, dressed in what was clearly superhero attire, her mask resting on her lap. The second was a picture of three women: the same bespectacled older woman, a younger woman, and in her arms, a little girl. They were all smiling and laughing.

“Hey.” Pippa frowned, and gently removed the photo from the board. “Does that little girl look familiar to you?”

“I don’t know, how many little girls have we seen today?”

“This is the girl from the room. The one who turned into bugs.” Pippa shuddered. “That’s basically burned into my memory for the rest of my life.”

“Wait, so… did Baba Yaga know her?” Getup asked.

And then, there was a great impact in the room—as if everyone had been in an elevator that had dropped and hit the bottom floor. Getup was jolted into the air as a long, pained shriek echoed in the distance.

“That the fuck was that!?” Kid Vicious shouted.

“No idea,” Phantom replied, climbing to his feet. “But maybe it means we’re closer.”

“Hey, guys?” Selkie was dusting herself off in front of a whiteboard that had been partially covered in dust and cobwebs. “Come take a look at this.”

The whiteboard was covered in the same neat, spindly handwriting as the notes. Selkie was staring at it, her brow furrowed. “Is this supposed to mean something?” Getup asked.

“Well, you remember how I said I was in physics club, right? We do something every month called ‘Freaky Friday’ where we like, order pizza and talk about really out-there things people do in physics? You know, like, string theory, quantum stuff, FTL, and it’s really fun…”

“You’re babbling,” Getup interrupted.

“Sorry. Anyway, one day we had a session on this thing called Gould’s Theorem. This dude, Hiram Gould, was trying to figure out a way to communicate with the dead. Not just communicate—like, go back and get them. He theorized that when we die, we go to an alternate universe, and that’s what we wound up calling the afterlife. He was trying to figure out a way to open a rift to get there.”

“Why is it always rifts to the afterlife?” Phantom groaned. “Why can’t these people, like, try to open up a rift to a Chipotle or something?”

“This looks like that formula,” Selkie said. “Just… different. It’s the same basic conceit, but whoever wrote this seriously overhauled it.”

“You think it has anything to do with this?” On the other side of the room, Kid Vicious held up a large blueprint. “This looks like a schematic for something.”

“Please don’t tell me that we got transported to Hell,” Getup groaned. “I signed up for this gig to avoid juvie, not get stuck on the set of No Exit.”

“Gramma!” A small voice called. “Gramma, come see!”

“What the fuck,” Getup asked, looking around. “Who said that?”

“Emmie, come sit and show gramma,” an older, kindly voice replied. “What have you drawn?”

“You’re the sound guy, you tell us,” Pippa snapped.

“I can’t tell where it’s coming from. It’s like before.”

“Gramma, this is Light Dancer. He’s a unicorn.”

“My goodness, what a beautiful piece of art! Emmie, do unicorns have wings?”

“This is new,” Phantom said. “Right? This is new?”

“This is new,” Selkie replied, her eyes wide.

“Light Dancer does; he’s special. He’s the prince of all unicorns.”

“Well! Sweetheart, would you mind drawing me a picture of Light Dancer? I think I’d like to look at him more than all these numbers…” the older voice said as it faded into nothingness.

“Okay, this is weird,” Kid Vicious said. “This is weird, right? It’s not just me?”

“It’s weird,” Phantom confirmed.

“Guys?” Selkie was standing over Paige. “Guys, I know I’m stating the obvious here, but something is really wrong with Paige.”

From where he was standing, Getup could see the air shimmering above her body the same way it shimmers over blacktop on a hot day. “Oh, crap.” He scooted over to the couch, reached out to touch Paige’s forehead, and immediately burned his hand the way Pippa had. “Ow! Son of a bitch!”

“What’s going on with her?” Selkie asked.

“That’s how it looks when she’s overcharging her powers. Only we’re not in combat, she’s not wearing her suit, and she has no way of controlling herself. Shit, she could probably bring this entire place down right now.”

“Have you guys noticed,” Phantom asked, “that things started getting really weird when you guys showed up?”

“Are you blaming us for this mess!?” Getup shouted.

“No, no. I’m just saying… you said Paige’s powers were ‘cosmic energy,’ right? And the worse she’s gotten, the weirder things have gotten in here. It’s like they’re connected.”

Kid Vicious was looking at the blueprints again. “Does anybody know Russian?”

“…Maybe a little,” Getup said begrudgingly. “Why?”

“Whoever wrote this has notes on here. I can read most of them, but there’s some in Russian, too. Do you know what this says?”

Getup took the schematics from Kid Vicious and looked them over. “This is a design for a portal. Not really a portal, sorry. Door. It’s a door. See these things, at the bottom?” He pointed. “There were magnets attached to conductors here as focal points for…” He squinted. “Cosmic energy.”

“If it has anything to do with the whiteboard,” Pippa said, “I’d bet whoever wrote these schematics was trying to use that to open a door into a different dimension.”

“Cosmic energy,” Phantom repeated.

“Maybe this place is interacting with Paige,” Pippa said quietly. “Like… like a virus. Like it’s trying to eradicate her because she’s messing with the environment.”

“So, just asking,” Getup replied. “Are we stuck in Hell, an alternate universe, or an honest-to-god living creature?”

“Only one way to find out,” Kid Vicious said, pocketing the blueprint, the photo, and the drawing of the unicorn. “This place gets more unstable the further in we get, right? So let’s keep going.” He gently scooped up Paige, who groaned softly. “It’s okay, Paige. We’ve almost got it. You’re going to be home before you know it. Who wants to do the honors and show us what’s behind door number one?”

“Who doesn’t love a good Vanna White?” Pippa asked, turning the knob and opening the door. Beyond the threshold, Getup could see snow, gravestones, and the sky, the color of cold water.

The maintenance deck of Tark Tower had never been a place that exuded warmth and welcome, but now, in the dark, it was even worse. Diana, Beep Boop, and Windswept all crowded together as they made their way into the depths of the service area, great walls of intermingled cables lurching up over them like a canyon overgrown with vines. Using the light that Beep Boop provided, Windswept was looking over her schematics.

“The main server should be straight back,” she said, squinting at the page. “From there, we need to reset the breakers, and then I can log into the security system and bring everything back online.”

“How long do you think that’ll take?” Diana asked, looking around nervously.

“Less than five minutes. Let’s hope Girl Monday remembers us.”

“You know,” Diana mused, “for a creature that was able to hack into and shut down one of the most sophisticated security systems in Halcyon city, Baba Yaga sure didn’t seem like the intellectual type. Then again, I only met her for a couple seconds.”

“Shock and awe,” Windswept replied. “You should be familiar with that tactic, given that you set your head on fire as soon as there’s even the hint of a fight brewing. Here! Here’s the door that leads to the server room. Hold on.” Windswept shook her head, leafing through the binder. The door was heavy steel, and it looked very impregnable. “You have to manually enter a code to get in.”

“I don’t ‘set my head on fire’ as soon as we start fighting,” Diana said, hurt. “And I certainly don’t ride into combat on a chariot made of flies.”

“What I’m saying is, it’s a strategy. If she rattles us before we start the fight, we’ll be off our game. And that’s exactly what happened last time, so let’s try to keep our wits about us when she shows up again, okay?”

“Really kind of hoping she ate it on the floor of the service ladder and the janitor finds her a week from now,” Diana replied.

“Would it kill you to be serious?” Windswept asked, rotating the lock that was recessed into the handle of the door.

“I am being serious. I seriously hope she’s splattered on the ground right now.”

“If she’s dead, we don’t get to ask her where the kids are.” Windswept looked back at Diana as she pulled the heavy steel door open. “Maybe reconsider.”

The server room was dark, quiet, and the air hung thick with the smell of electronics and ozone. “Main server. Third one on the left. Rory always wanted to make it hard to find if you didn’t know where to look.” Biting her lower lip, she began flicking switches in sequence. And then, suddenly, the red emergency lights flickered on just in time for Diana to catch a glimpse of a pale figure dart behind the row of servers closest to the door.

“Oh, fuck me!” She shouted in exasperation, flames shooting up from her shoulders and head.

“Good evening,” a pleasant female voice from overhead. “It appears you have initiated a system reset. Please— _ SLEEP MY LITTLE _ —proceed with the instructions as— _ GRANDMA WITCH IS OUT _ —printed on your Tark Systems Quick Card!”

“She’s back in the system,” Windswept said softly. “We need to get her out before I can reboot it.”

“Windswept,” Beep Boop replied, “I can do it. I know the internal server protocol and security structure in the Tark systems. If I can hack into the system, I can reset it.”

“How do  _ you  _ know that?”

“I downloaded the Tark computer schematics when I got here. I can hypothetically hack into the system whenever I want.”

“You’re not allowed to do that.”

“I’m aware.”

“Beep Boop,” Diana interrupted, “the last time we asked you to get onto the system, Baba Yaga almost fried your circuits. You can’t risk yourself like that again.”

“I know, I know. Look, the parts of my circuitry compromised were directly linked to my WiFi connectors. I think she used that to manipulate me. If I have a hardwired link to the system, she won’t be able to get in my head again. Windswept, I can do it in thirty seconds. You just need to distract her.”

“Well?” Diana looked over at Windswept.

“Please,” Beep Boop said quietly. “I’m asking you to trust me.”

From the other side of the server room there was a long, raspy shriek. Windswept pushed Beep Boop to the main computer screen. “Thirty seconds!” She shouted as Beep Boop extended a slender cable from her wrist and plugged it into the monitor. She immediately went rigid.

Diana heard something scrabbling onto the top of the servers, and looked up just in time to see Baba Yaga leap at her, teeth bared, fingers outstretched, and she felt her heart stop just as Windswept shoved her out of the way, cocked her arm back, and punched Baba Yaga in the face at mach one. Baba Yaga rolled back against the floor and scuttled to the back of the server room, howling in pain.

“See?” Windswept said, helping Diana to her feet. “Shock and awe.”

“System restore initiated!” Girl Monday chirped.

“I think hitting her works!” Beep Boop shouted. “Keep doing that!”

“We need to get out of the server room,” Windswept said, cracking her knuckles. “I can’t build up my speed here, and you can’t use your fire by the computers.”

“No, but I can still punch the bitch in the face,” Diana said, stalking forward. “Hey grandma! Come on out! I got a couple questions to ask you!”

_ CLOSE YOUR EYES— _ Girl Monday began singing.  _ SHE IS LOOKING AT YOU— _

“No you don’t!” Beep Boop shouted, a mechanical screech coming from the speakers.

Diana heard another shriek and saw Baba Yaga rushing at Beep Boop from the opposite side. “Windswept!” She shouted.

Windswept, catching her cue, zipped forward and, in a motion Diana could only describe as a punt, booted Baba Yaga away from Beep Boop. This time, however, Baba Yaga rolled, popped up, and bolted towards Diana.

_ SHE WILL EAT YOU WHOLE, _ Girl Monday sang as Baba Yaga leaped onto Diana, knocking the taller woman prone and slashing at her erratically. 

“Diana!” Windswept shouted, suddenly scared, and rushed forward as Diana locked one of her legs around Baba Yaga’s and flipped her onto the ground, trying to hold her off as Windswept skidded to a halt behind Baba Yaga and grabbed her by her long, tangled hair, yanking her away from the other woman.

And then, the lights blinked on clear and bright, and the whistling sound of elk bugling filled the air. Baba Yaga vanished.

“Game over!” Beep Boop announced over the loudspeakers as Windswept wrapped her arms around Diana’s midsection, away from where Baba Yaga had been a second before. When Windswept let go, she looked at her arms and went pale.

“What?” Diana scoffed, running a hand through her disheveled hair. “You suddenly worried about me or something?”

“Diana.” Windswept pointed, and then extended her arms, wet and red.

“Oh.” Diana touched her fingers to her chest, and went pale. Her fingers traced the edges of the new valleys that had been carved into her flesh, pumping slick red blood down the front of her shirt.

“You… Here.” Windswept unraveled her scarf from around her neck and pushed it against Diana’s skin, holding it in place, trying not to gag at the heavy smell of blood. “You’re okay. She…” A consolation prize: “Didn’t get your face?”

“Oh thank god; I can go back into modeling if the superhero thing doesn’t pan out.” Diana held the scarf at her neck, perhaps unaware that her hands were over Windswept’s, pushing down on the worst of her injuries. “I owe you a scarf. Beep Boop!” She looked back at the robot, who gave an enthusiastic thumbs up. “Great job!”

“Thank you! You look awful!”

“Medkits are in the hangar,” Windswept said, pulling back, shaking off her hands. “We’ll get you patched up. Keep applying pressure, and let’s get moving.”

“Let’s hope our friend doesn’t give us any more trouble until then,” Diana grimaced, limping toward the exit. “Hey; I guess this means you were right.”

“What do you mean?”

“Didn’t know this was going to happen. Should have worn my suit.” She managed a rueful smile.


	6. The Long Goodbye

It was a graveyard. That’s what they were looking at: a graveyard. It was massive, stretching over the horizon, the tombstones jutting up from the frozen ground like rows of crooked teeth. As the kids stepped out of the door, a thin skin of icy snow crunched under their feet and a sharp wind whipped around their faces. There was something else, too: the graveyard was littered with wrecked cars.

“What is this?” Pippa asked, looking at one of the nearest wrecks, a red sedan that had hit a black truck head-on.

“Someone had a junkyard with a lot of extra room, and they decided to branch out?” Getup examined another wreck, which was also a head-on collision between a sedan and a truck.

“Do these cars all look… kind of familiar?” Kid Vicious kicked one of the wheels of the cars. “Red car, black truck, head-on crash?”

“Yeah.” Selkie wrapped her arms around herself and shivered. “They’re all the same.”

“Guys, look.” Pippa pointed at one of the gravestones. “These are all the same, too. Same burial plot.”

Getup walked over to the graves and saw, sitting next to each other, written in Cyrillic:

_Maria Netskaya, beloved mother, daughter, and wife: 1964-1999. Emily Netskaya, 1991-1999. An angel welcomed home._ Laying on Maria’s grave was a red cowl.

“No points for guessing how they died, I guess,” Pippa said, looking around the graveyard.

Behind them, Paige suddenly cried out and began struggling in Kid Vicious’ arms, and he set her down on the ground. Getup and Pippa watched, horrified, as the snow around her began melting.

“Paige!” Pippa rushed over and knelt over her, their hair blowing backwards as if they’d just opened an oven. “Paige! Listen to me! You have to hold it together! Please, wake up!”

Paige wailed and arched upward, and Pippa was blown back by an unseen force. Phantom caught them and walked them backward, away from Paige. “What are we going to do!?” He shouted.

_“Here,”_ a soft voice said behind them. _“Hold this here for about thirty seconds. That should do it.”_

Getup jerked his head around in recognition. “Windswept!?”

_“Thanks. Ow. He couldn’t come up with a more high-tech way to do this?”_

“Flashpoint!?”

“Look!” Pippa pointed, and beyond a few rows of graves, there they were: Flashpoint and Windswept, sitting there as if the kids were looking at them through a thin, gauzy curtain. Windswept was pressing something against Flashpoint’s chest as the other woman grimaced in pain. Beyond them, Beep Boop watched apprehensively.

“Guys!” Getup shouted, booking it towards the rift. “You guys! It’s us! We can see you!” As he reached out to the rift, though, he passed harmlessly through it, skidding to a halt in the snow. Despair began to calcify in his gut. “No! No! Come on!”

_“Well, once Rory gets back, we’ll get one of the recovery pods going, and that’ll fix you up permanently.”_ Around them, other rifts were opening, all of them showing the same scene of Flashpoint looking up at Windswept, an expression of vulnerability on her face as she placed her hand over the other woman’s.

“She’s going to tear this place apart,” Phantom said softly.

“She needs a focal point,” Pippa said, looking back at Paige. “That’s why she wears her suit; to focus her powers.”

“She’s overcharging!” Selkie shouted, her hair billowing back in the wind. “We can’t get near her!”

“So move. I will.”

Pippa looked behind them to see the Freaky Phantom crack his knuckles and square his jaw. “You’ll burn up!” Pippa protested. “You can’t touch her!”

“We don’t have a damn choice! You said she needs a focal point!” He rolled up his sleeves and marched forward, pushing past the pulsing waves of energy coming from Paige’s body as if he were wading into the ocean. “Get ready!” He shouted as he knelt above Paige’s head. Ian watched as he took a breath, and he was suddenly so young; he was just a kid, like himself, trying to do what he could. The Phantom steeled himself, and without hesitation put his hands on either side of Paige’s head, and his skin sizzled in immediate response. He screamed in pain, but kept his eyes locked on Paige. “Get ready!”

“Hey, Windswept?” Beep Boop said as Windswept deposited Diana into a seat in the hangar and began rifling through one of the medkits. “So, I... have a visual on Baba Yaga.”

“Really?” Windswept asked, returning to Diana’s seat with what looked like two large gauze bandages and a bottle of water. “How?”

“I kept a connection to the security system; the cameras show her rematerializing and dematerializing in the stairway between floors three and four.”

“So she’s blinking in and out of existence?” Diana asked as Windswept wiped her hands down with some hand sanitizer.

“Looks like. Perhaps you damaged her more than you thought.”

“Here,” Windswept said, peeling off the backing of the first gauze pad and laying it over Diana’s injuries. “Hold this here for about thirty seconds. That should do it.”

“Thanks.” Diana winced as she felt something pulling the edges of her injuries together. “Ow. He couldn’t come up with a more high-tech way to do this?”

“Well, once Rory gets back, we’ll get one of the recovery pods going, and that’ll fix you up permanently.” Maybe unthinking, Diana rested her hand over Windswept’s, who gently removed it and found a sudden interest in the second gauze pad. “Yes, hold it right there. That pad has a gel on it that will stop the bleeding and disinfect the wound. Once it cures, you’ll be able to walk and move normally. Beep Boop, if you’ve got a bead on Baba Yaga, could you go get Diana’s suit? If she gets too close, come right back.”

“Can do!” Beep Boop happily traipsed off to where the suits were kept. Windswept gently applied the second pad to Diana’s neck, smoothing it over the crux of her shoulder, and stepped back to admire her work. “We’ll get you suited up, and you should be better off the next time you two engage each other.”

“Thanks.” Diana leaned back in her chair, and closed her eyes. “Son of a bitch.”

“The pain should subside after the bandage cures.”

“Not that. The kids. It was easy to not focus on it while we were trying to get down here, but… I was supposed to be taking care of them tonight, and I failed. This is all my fault.”

“I dropped the ball, too. We—”

“No, don’t you get it!?” Diana snapped, sitting up. “I screwed the pooch! I treated this entire thing like a big joke, and now we have no idea where the kids are, or what happened to them, or even if they’re hurt! This is my fault.” She sat back and placed her hand over her mouth, her eyes closed and brow furrowed. “I knew I was never going to be any good at this job.”

“Diana, I know you’re upset. I am too. But you can’t lose your focus here, okay? We’re going to find her, and we’re going to get the kids back. We just need to keep moving.”

“Is that how you deal with it?” Diana asked, her voice hollow. “You just keep moving?”

“I don’t know what you mean,” Windswept lied.

“Windswept, Flashpoint?” Beep Boop poked her head back into the room. “Is now a bad time?”

“No,” Diana said, sighing and wiping her eyes. “No, you’re fine. Come on in.”

“I have your suit,” Beep Boop offered. “I’m also tracking some strange movements from Baba Yaga.”

“Like what?” Windswept asked.

“Like—” Beep Boop snapped her fingers, and one of the security monitors on the hanger turned on. Diana and Windswept watched as Baba Yaga continued blinking in and out of existence, holding her head, screaming. “Like that.”

“What the hell is that?” Diana asked, stepping into her suit and zipping up.

“Well,” Beep Boop replied, “I ran some calculations around your last altercation with her, and I hypothesize that getting punched in the face at 767.269 miles per hour may have some negative repercussions. Of course, in the name of data validation, I would like to repeat the process several more times.”

“Do you hear that?” Diana asked, cocking her head to the side. A low, pulsing hum was beginning to fill the room.

“Yeah.” Windswept looked up at the monitor. “It… It’s coinciding with her blinking.”

The humming was getting louder, like a deep throb of sound crashing over the hangar. “Do you think that’s good, or bad?”

“I think we’re about to find out!” Windswept said, shoving Diana and Beep Boop behind a console. “Get down!”

The three managed to duck out of the shockwave just as it erupted over the hanger, blowing away everything not bolted down and knocking the Vanguard’s shuttle back several yards. After a moment Diana, who was crouched over Beep Boop, chanced a look over the console. Windswept, who had been shielding Diana, joined her. Standing there, clinging to each other, were six teenagers.

“G-Getup?” Windswept asked.

“Oh! My! God!” The Getup Noise’s familiar nasal voice rang out through the hangar. “You would not believe what we have been through!”

“Pippa!” Beep Boop shouted, jumping a carton, racing over to the group and lifting Pippa off their feet in a hug, spinning on one heel. “Pippa! We were so worried about you!”

“Paige!” Diana shouted, vaulting over the console and racing towards the group. Paige was lying on the ground next to two unfamiliar boys and a girl, her face turned away from the other woman. The two boys were collapsed on the ground, breathing heavily, but the girl looked like she was more in charge of herself.

“What happened to her!?” Diana skidded to a halt beside her Paige. Paige, whose presence had always filled the room. Paige, who had never looked smaller now than ever before. She was drenched in sweat and looked very pale, and blood from her nose was smeared across her mouth and chin like paint. “Paige,” she repeated, her voice breaking as she put her hands on either side of her kid’s forehead, brushing her soaked hair from her face. “Come on. Come on, kid. Say something.”

“D-Diana?” Paige asked, her voice weak.

“Yeah. Yeah, I’m here.”

Paige cracked an eye open. “My head hurts,” she groaned. “Why are we in the hangar?”

“Oh, god.” Diana’s voice broke as she pulled her up into a hug. “Oh my god, kid. We were so worried about you.”

“What happened?” Paige asked, her voice groggy. “I remember getting ready to decoupage some stuff, and then…”

“I can’t even begin to tell you, and I was conscious for the whole thing,” Getup said, watching Windswept zip down the stairs to the group. “Hi, Windswept.”

“Hi.” Windswept looked at the three newcomers, goggle-eyed in recognition. “Selkie? Kid Vicious? Freaky Phantom?”

“Present.” Selkie waved hesitantly. “Hey, is there a—a med kit or something handy? Our friend’s hands—”

“—are fine.” Freaky Phantom held up his hands, which seemed completely unscathed. “It’s like it never happened.”

“Like what never happened!?” Windswept asked, exasperated by the sudden pile of pending reports that had deposited themselves on the floor of the hangar. “Look, let’s get everyone out of the hangar, and get Paige cleaned up, and when Rory and Lichen get back, we can sit down and debrief. In the meantime—”

There was an explosion of flies at the far end of the hangar, and a high, whistling scream. Baba Yaga stepped out of a swirling curtain of bugs, her hands clenched and her eyes glowing. She paused only to point at the children.

“Okay, time to finish this.” Windswept adjusted her scarf and pulled her goggles on. “Kids, I want everyone to get to cover. Don’t let us out of your sight. On the double!”

“We can fight!” Pippa protested. “We’re fine!”

“I’m fine!” Paige volunteered, using Diana to stand upright. “I’m just a little woozy.”

“Cover! Now!” Diana barked, shoving Paige into Pippa’s arms. “Windswept and I will sort this out. Hey, Beep Boop!” She turned to the retreating teenagers. “You have access to the stuff you stored remotely now, right?”

“Yeah!”

“Good.” She rolled up her sleeves and cracked her neck. “Play me something I can dance to.”

As Diana and Windswept strode toward Baba Yaga in lockstep, a circle of fire forming an impromptu arena, a wailing guitar riff echoed through the hangar from the speakers overhead.

“Oh, this is going to send my subscriptions through the roof,” Pippa whispered, poking their phone over several heavy crates the group had clustered behind. “Flashpoint is great at building a mood. Phantom, is it okay if I cut this throughout our interview?”

“Would you stop recording and get your suit on?” Getup hissed, pulling his gloves on.

A beat began to pulse through the hangar.

“I can do both; I have an image to maintain. Hold this.” Pippa shoved their phone into Paige’s hands and grabbed their uniform off of the floor as Diana strutted forward to the music. “Keep the shot steady, okay? Man, I am glad we’re back in this plane of existence.”

“What about me?” Paige asked meekly as Pippa suited up and adjusted their bowtie.

“I know you don’t remember it, but you’ve done plenty for today,” Pippa said, taking their phone back and winking. “Let us have some fun, now.”

As the music swelled, Windswept rushed forward and buttonhooked at the last moment, drawing Baba Yaga’s attention behind her as Diana conjured up an explosion of flame around the witch. She screamed and rushed Diana, who, this time, grabbed her, flipped on her back, and booted her overhead before scrabbling to her feet. As Baba Yaga landed, Windswept zipped behind her and neatly clotheslined her.

“Yes!” Diana shouted, pumping a fist into the air. “Yes! The clothesline!”

As Baba Yaga struggled to her feet, wheezing, she focused her eyes on Windswept with renewed hatred. Curls of vapor began materializing off the floor, rising higher and higher, until they began to take on the shape and resemblance of human children. Human children, reaching helplessly for Windswept, their little faces contorted.

“Oh, shit,” Diana said in a small voice.

Baba Yaga pushed both hands outward and a tidal wave of screaming human forms barreled down onto Windswept, who was suddenly pulled out of the way by Diana, the two of them landing heavily on the ground.

“She—she’s using children? Ghosts?” Windswept asked, scooting backwards as Diana knelt in front of her, projecting a line of flame around Baba Yaga. “What—what was that!? What happened!?”

And in one smooth motion, Diana reached into her pocket and threw the bottle of Canuk Club into the fire, sending liquor splattering everywhere before blue flames rippled out on the puddle on the ground, cutting a path into the massive wave of flies that the Baba Yaga had directed at them. As Baba Yaga tried to put out the flames climbing her legs and tattered robe, Diana scooted back to Windswept’s side.

“Could really use your help right now,” Diana said, sending another gout of fire up Baba Yaga’s body. “What is happening here?”

“I can’t!” Windswept shouted. “I don’t know! I—I don’t know!”

“Focus!” Diana sent out a shockwave of fire roaring across the floor of the hangar, burning away the flies and causing Baba Yaga to scramble. She looked back at Windswept. “You can still fight.”

“No, I can’t!” Windswept protested. “I can’t! The, the children, they—”

“Hey! Baba Yaga!” Getup’s voice echoed throughout the hangar. “What, you decided stealing kids wasn’t enough, so you moved onto stealing my dumb mentor’s composure?”

Baba Yaga jerked around, and when she saw Getup, Pippa, and Beep Boop walking towards her, she turned away from Diana and Windswept.

“No!” Diana threw up a barricade of fire. “I told you to get to cover!”

“Yeah, well, we’ve got a bone to pick with Scary Poppins over here, too. Like—well, I mean Mary Poppins was a nanny, and this lady is more like an evil grandma—look, I’m still workshopping it. My point is, we just got out of the Winchester Peasant Hut, and we’ve got some constructive feedback on the accommodations.” Getup suddenly materialized next to Baba Yaga. “More home furnishings, less creepy children. Like, 2/10.” And then he blinked to another side of the room. “And would it have killed you to put in some window treatments!? Or windows!?”

“Smile, dear!” Pippa jumped beside Baba Yaga and held up their phone. “We’re livestreaming. Whoop—too slow!” They vanished as Baba Yaga reached for them, and two more Pippas popped up on either side of the room. “Now, I know it’s hard, but you can only pick one of us,” they said in tandem, popping their hip.

“I think we figured out what this lady’s damage is,” Getup said, flashing into existence next to Windswept and Diana. “She’s like, some kind of mad scientist or something.”

“What?” Diana, her hand still on Windswept’s shoulder, furrowed her brow.

“Yeah. Look, I don’t know where she brought us, but it was this weird alternate dimension kind of thing, and we found a whole bunch of stuff about a dead kid, and we think she was trying to bring her back. I guess it didn’t go too well.” He looked at Windswept. “Are you okay?”

“I’m fine.” Windswept stood. “So is she a ghost, or possessed, or what?”

“I don’t know!” Getup shrugged. “What, I give you brilliant deductions, and all you have is more questions?”

“How’d you get out, anyway?” Diana asked.

“Um. Paige did! She had, a, um, special interaction with the place. She was able to bring the whole thing down and let us out. Yeah, she was really on the ball the whole time. Really, uh, just active. And conscious. Cannot stress that last part enough.”

“Baba Yaga,” Pippa asked in the background, “if you had a fan following, would it look like this?” A cluster of crying children popped up on either side of Baba Yaga before vanishing, “or this?” The children were replaced with scowling old women. “Hit ‘like’ for kids, ‘reblog’ for crones!” They threw up a peace sign.

“Do you know their name?” Diana asked.

“Who?”

“The person who died.”

“Uh, there were actually two. Maria Netskaya and Emily Netskaya.”

Windswept looked over at Getup, her eyes wide. “No.”

“What?”

“Maria Netskaya’s alter ego was Ursa Minor,” Windswept said. “Lichen knew her. She was Ursa Major’s sidekick, but she died in a car accident with her daughter. Ursa Major was never seen again after that.”

“Do you think…?”

“Pippa!” Diana shouted. “Change tack! We need a distraction!”

“So are we beating this lady up, or not?” Beep Boop asked. “I’d like some guidance, here.”

“Baba Yaga!”

A thin, tired voice echoed over the hanger. All heads turned in the direction of Paige O’Grady, who was awkwardly struggling over the crates the kids had left her behind. Only Selkie was able to reach her and help her onto the ground. “Baba Yaga! You stole me and my friends. Why?”

“I don’t think this is a good idea,” Windswept protested, but whatever reaction she was expecting from Baba Yaga didn’t come. Instead, the woman let out a little wheeze, and haltingly reached for Paige, her hand quaking.

“Oh, my god,” Phantom said from the other end of the warehouse. “Is she stopping?”

“Woah,” Pippa muttered, zooming in with their phone. “She is.”

Baba Yaga reached again, and emitted something that sounded like a sob.

“Phantom,” Pippa said, “you said you worked with ghosts, right? What’s the chance you could help something like this pass on?”

“You’re seriously asking?”

“Why did you take us?” Paige’s voice was shaky. “Why’d you steal my friends? We have parents. We…” Selkie flinched, but Paige did not, as Baba Yaga materialized in front of her face and then rocked back on her heels, taking in Paige’s own wide, scared eyes. Her flesh was peeling from her bones like old paint, but there was no animosity in her face. It was just sadness. “You…” Paige’s voice was soft. “You’re grieving.”

Baba Yaga held out a bony hand, connected to an impossibly thin wrist. Without pausing, Paige touched her fingers to her hand.

A shockwave rippled across the hanger. It was as if two diodes had touched; each one viciously opposed to the other. Paige let out a groan and grasped her chest. And then, miraculously, she grasped Baba Yaga’s hand and spoke.

“You can’t stay here. I’m sorry, but this isn’t the place for you.” Her chest was glowing, as if daylight was being pumped through her heart. And then, Baba Yaga’s grip solidified to iron, and she wrenched Paige down.

“Maria,” she whispered, her voice resonant with the wings of a thousand flies. “My Maria…”

A woman’s voice filled the hangar: soft, sure, and old. _“My dear, death is not such a problem when you are powerful like this. I would simply open up the universe and get you back.”_

“You didn’t!” Paige protested, pulling away. “I’m sorry! I’m sorry! I know you want to, but you can’t!”

“This is cruel,” Windswept said softly.

“You,” Baba Yaga rasped.

“I’m not her!” Paige protested.

“No,” Baba Yaga continued. “You… and me…”

Selkie, still standing on the outskirts of this exchange, looked back at the other kids and gestured furiously.

“I think we might be able to end this now,” Phantom said softly. “Kid Vicious, do you still have that drawing?”

“Yeah.” Kid Vicious pulled it out of his back pocket. “I’d almost forgotten.”

“We might be able to use that to ground her to her granddaughter’s memory.”

“Well, let’s give it a shot.” The kids marched over to where Baba Yaga was currently yanking on Paige’s arm. “We know what we’re doing,” Pippa said, as Diana began to protest. “Getup, come here.”

“Do I have to?”

“Now, please?”

Baba Yaga took no notice of the teenagers that gathered around her, until Kid Vicious gently deposited the drawing in front of her. She snatched it up with her free hand and regarded it, and something human came back into her eyes. Freaky Phantom gently set a hand on her shoulder, and closed his eyes.

“It’s time to go,” Paige said, gently resting her free hand on her arm. “We aren’t mad, but we’re not your daughter or granddaughter. You need to move on.”

“You…” Baba Yaga pulled Paige closer. “You’re…”

“No.” Paige shook her head. “I’m not.” Her chest was glowing so brightly that Ian had to squint when he looked at her.

Baba Yaga’s voice grew angry. “You…!”

When she plunged her hand towards Paige’s heart, something peculiar happened: a chorus of voices erupted from Paige as if they were a gale of wind, blowing Baba Yaga back. Paige’s body went limp, her head lolling backward as a cluster of ghostly hands erupted from her chest, ensnaring Baba Yaga.

“Jesus Christ!” Getup yelped.

“Your grief is held in regard, but your actions are not excusable,” Paige said softly, her head still limp, lolling between her shoulder blades. “The Abyss has looked into you, and found recognition.”

“Grandma!” A little voice rang out in the darkness. “Grandma, over here!”

“Em—my,” Baba Yaga rasped.

“God’s glory is good,” Phantom murmured, his hand still on Baba Yaga’s shoulder. “God is calling you home.”

There was a peculiar smell in the hangar—one of ozone and lilacs. “It’s okay,” Pippa said gently. “It’s okay. You can go.”

“They’re waiting for you,” Kid Vicious said gently.

“You can go home,” Phantom said.

“Gramma!” Emily’s voice rang across the hangar. “Gramma, where are you? Come on!”

Baba Yaga reached out to the unseen voice of her granddaughter, and as she did, her hand fell away into dust. As everyone watched, she simply disintegrated into nothing, leaving only the crayon drawing behind. A sense of peace settled over the hangar as Paige collapsed backwards into Selkie’s arms.

As Diana watched, she only realized that she was crying when she felt Windswept awkwardly place a hand on her shoulder.


	7. This Now, This Us

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Note! This chapter features discussions of emotional abuse, along with a brief mention of physical abuse.

_ Sleep heavily and know that I am here with you. The past is gone, and cannot harm you anymore. And while the future is fast coming for you, it always flinches first, and settles in as the gentle present. This now, this us, we can cope with that. We can do this together, you and I. _

_ Cecil Baldwin, Welcome to Night Vale _

And that was the conclusion of the Young Vanguard's first ghost story, in the hangar of Tark Tower, with all the children gathered around the remains of an angry ghost who finally found peace. In the aching quiet of the hangar, Getup looked over and realized that Kid Vicious, Freaky Phantom, and Selkie all seemed to look, well, normal. The color had come back into their faces, and their eyes no longer seemed to be sunken down into their skulls. Selkie in particular had taken on a quality of ethereal beauty that he hadn't noticed earlier: her lush brown hair had become shiny and buoyant again, her eyes large and round and dark, and she was now fuller, plumper than she had been in the hut, her lips curving upwards like a bow at rest.

"Hey, wait a second," he said, not realizing the words that were about to come out of his mouth. "You gained weight."

Selkie reached out and slapped him.

Rory and Lichen arrived moments later in the shuttle; they had known that something was up when Rory had gotten a notification that Tark Tower had gone dark. He shook Windswept’s and Diana's hands and congratulated them on a job well done, and reacted with manufactured chummy delight at seeing the three missing kids sitting, healthy and whole, on the floor of the hangar. Somehow, the feeling of normalcy that settled on the group as Rory herded them into the tower felt forced; perhaps it was a side effect of what had just happened. But it felt odd, as parents were called and families arrived at Tark Tower to be reunited with their children. It came as a shock to everyone that Kid Vicious’s father was a superhero by the name of Man O’ War, and when Kid Vicious embraced his other dad, Man O’ War lifted both of them off the ground together in a tearful hug; Freaky Phantom was admonished to never,  _ ever _ do that again as his mother and father hugged him, and Selkie was beset upon by her parents and girlfriend, all of whom were too busy bawling to say much of anything at all.

"If any of your kids are interested in interning, you let me know!" Rory said brightly to the parents. "I hear they did some amazing things out there. All of our kids loved working with them!"

"It was great meeting you," Kid Vicious said, hugging Paige, who seemed wholly confused by his familiarity with her. "If you ever need some help in the west side, or if you want to hang out with my cats, let me know, okay?"

"Hey fam!" Pippa said, raising their cell phone to capture both them and Phantom, "I am here, live, with the Freaky Phantom, who just went through a very emotional reunion with his parents after a week trapped in a parallel universe. And I was right there with him as he helped save the day! Tell me about it, Phantom." And Phantom, openly bashful, began to address the camera.

"Hey, um, thanks for your help in the hut-thing," Selkie said to Getup shyly. "It's pretty cool that you can speak Russian! My high school only offered Spanish and French."

"Oh, well, I barely know any, really. Mostly because my parents made me take a stupid foreign language class to accompany my music lessons, and they made me study this stupid Russian guy named wait you thought that was cool?"

"Yeah, actually." Her cheeks were much fuller than they had been before, and they pushed her eyes partially closed when she smiled. "If you ever need someone to help you on a water mission, let me know, okay? And, um, sorry for slapping you."

"No, it's okay! I mean, I sounded like I... I mean, I didn't... I mean, I don't think you look... I mean, it's a good look. On you. I meant to say that. You look, um, good. You look better than you did in the pocket hellscape. AnywayI'mgoingtogonow."

And, as they left, normalcy descended once again on the tower. It seemed unfitting, given the evening that everyone had had, but the group unanimously agreed that Paige badly needed to shower, and after that unfortunate biological detour, it was probably better served if everyone went about their business anyway.

The day after, however, Diana was called to Rory's lab. He was standing there, beside Lichen and Windswept, stroking his chin in thought.

"Hey, um," Diana began, "we haven't debriefed yet, but I—"

"Diana! Good. C'mere." Rory motioned her into the room, which was dark; all the better to see the blueprints projected on the wall, written in a mix of English and Russian. "I want your opinion on this."

"What are those?"

"Schematics! Kid Vicious gave them to us. I've been busy since last night, y'see." Rory tossed a file folder in Diana's direction. "I think the kids just solved a very old mystery regarding one of Lichen's friends."

"Do you mean Baba Yaga?"

"Well, not originally. First, her name was Oksana Kuznetsov; her alias was Ursa Major when she worked with us in a superheroic capacity. I knew her, too. She... She was brilliant. I learned a lot from reading her works. Her sidekick, Ursa Minor, was her daughter." Tark sighed. "Oksana vanished after her daughter and granddaughter died in a car accident, and now we know why."

"Rory," Diana asked, "what were Oksana's powers?"

"Well," Rory said, hesitantly, "It’s funny that you mention it. Oksana was, actually, why I was able to make Paige a suit that had a conduit for her powers. I told you I learned a lot from Oksana's writing. She had the ability to channel cosmic energy too. Her suit, her powers, her writing, all of it; I used it to help Boom. But Oksana had abilities I couldn’t predict for Boom. She had the ability to call forth the dead and use them to attack Windswept, for instance."

"Oh, my god," Diana said softly.

"Diana, she was a great woman when she was alive. She was kind, and loving, and powerful in a way none of us can conceptualize," Rory said. "And these schematics prove it. She was able to focus her powers and tear a rift in the universe. She—she tore a hole in reality, and that same power corrupted her into what we know as Baba Yaga. By the time you met her, she was beyond control."

"But Paige—"

"Listen to me. I knew Oksana. So did Lichen. Paige is the sort of person Oksana was, but we knew about Oksana’s powers, and now we know about this. Paige is a good kid." He gave an encouraging smile. "That's why we're telling you this. Because if you know about these urges, if you can give her a healthier outlook on this, then... We can potentially avoid this."

"What am I going to tell her?" Diana asked.

"I don't know. Maybe it's not a conversation you need to have today. Maybe it'll come in the years ahead. But, Diana, she's going to come into these powers. I am asking you to make sure she uses them responsibly."

"What do I do if she doesn't?" Diana asked, haltingly.

"Well, make sure she does." Rory smiled again. "She trusts you. I know you can get through to her. Otherwise, we’d... have to intervene on Halcyon City’s behalf."

It was too much. Diana wheeled out of the room and stormed down the hallway and into the common room, not sure of how she felt—should she feel angry? Sad? Conflicted? Right now, more than anything else, she felt like she needed a drink.

"Diana." She turned to see Lichen, following her. "Diana, I sense you are emotional."

"Good senses," Diana hissed. "Did Rory just fucking threaten to kill my kid if she gets out of hand?"

"Diana, I am asking you to be calm. I understand that Rory can be polarizing in the moment." Lichen extended a hand, and slowly patted Diana on the arm. "Diana, I knew Oksana personally. She was a good friend of mine. May I tell you about her?"

"Sure." Diana sighed, and sat down.

"I see many of Paige's best qualities in Oksana; she was smart, she was devoted to her family, and she was incredibly powerful. But Oksana came from a different time, and she was a different person than Paige is; she did not know how to process grief, and so that grief consumed her. It does not have to be that way for Paige."

“Grief? You’re asking me to help her process her fucking grief? I can’t even process  _ my  _ grief!” Diana shouted, getting to her feet, her heels smoking. "How am I supposed to do that?" Diana asked softly. "I can’t teach her to do that."

"At the heart of it, nobody can." Lichen sat down, bending the Tark Tech couch with his weight. "That is the truly difficult part of it. We can teach them all we want, but ultimately, they have to learn for themselves."

"Lichen," Diana whispered, "what am I going to do?"

"You can only be there for her," Lichen said gently. "The true tragedy of Oksana's story is this: she became a person she was never meant to be. But I can tell you this with confidence: Oksana never had a friend like you to help her along the way. I believe in you, Diana. So does Rory. This was not a light mantle we entrusted you with, but we all know you will bear it well. I do believe, truly, that it will work out in the end."

“What if it doesn’t?”

“Trust in me, Diana. It will.”

"...Thank you." Diana smiled, and rested a hand on Lichen’s shoulder. "I'm going to go talk to Paige. She probably needs a shoulder after yesterday."

"Good. Before you go, may I ask you something?"

"Sure. Shoot."

"May I keep the photo of Oksana, and the drawing? I would like to have something to remember my friend by."

"Oh, of course," Diana said gently. "Lichen, I'm so sorry. I never asked how you felt about—"

"It is an unfortunate side effect," Lichen replied, "of my longevity. I have seen many friends die. I do not need condolences. I only ask to keep some part of their memories alive. And, maybe, to help the living."

"You can absolutely keep them," Diana said gently. "Lichen, if you ever need to talk—"

"Diana, I already know that you would be there for me." Lichen smiled. "It is one of your better qualities. Now, go. Go talk to Paige."

"Okay." Diana smiled, waved, and boarded the elevator to the fifty-sixth floor of the tower. The Daycare was oddly calm, given the events of the previous day; Beep Boop was watching TV, Pippa was obviously recording a video in a breathless, you-have-to-know-about-this tone, and Getup's door was closed. Paige was sitting on the floor of her room, absently decoupaging a votive candle holder.

"Hey, kid," Diana said, leaning against her door frame. "I just wanted to check in. How ya doing?"

"I don't know," Paige replied sullenly, gluing a magazine cutout to what appeared to be her tenth candle holder. "How are you?"

"That's not what I asked." Diana stepped into Paige’s room. "How are you doing?"

"...Not good?" Paige shook her head. "Apparently this crazy scary supervillain we faced off against has the same set of powers as me? And she opened up an alternate universe? And kidnapped my friends? And I don’t remember any of it because her creepy parallel universe almost killed me? I remember waking up in the Med Bay, Diana. That’s what I remember."

"Paige, listen.” Diana sunk against the doorframe, crouching adjacent to Paige. “Her name was Oksana. Okay? Oksana Kuznetsov. And I want you to remember that, because she was a person. And yes, she had the same powers as you, but she was a human being, okay? She lost her daughter and granddaughter in a car accident, and then she lost control trying to bring them back. She... she didn't know when to let go. And that changed her."

"What about you?" Paige asked, idly slapping modge podge onto a magazine. "Would you have let me go?"

"Okay, let's first acknowledge that there's a difference between your daughter dying in a car accident and your protégé getting sucked into a phantom dimension lorded over by an evil ghost," Diana snapped. "And no, Paige, I would not have let you go, okay? How dare you think that? That I'd just move on without you? That I wouldn't try—that I  _ didn't _ try—" Diana stopped as Paige began to sob. "...Are you okay?"

Paige was crying over her decoupage project. "I don't know. I—I was here, and suddenly I woke up in the Med Bay, and there was a supervillain, but she had my powers, and she hurt my friends, and I don't know what to do, or who I am, and maybe I'm a monster too, right? And now _you're_ yelling—"

"Paige, I'm sorry," Diana said, scooting closer to her. "I’m sorry. I didn't mean it like that. I was so scared when you vanished—the other kids, too, but  _ you _ . You're my kid, okay? You're  _ my _ kid." Diana gathered Paige in her arms and hugged her tight, and felt Paige press her head into her shoulder. "And maybe that’s why this was so scary for me, because I know I would have done everything Oksana did to get you back. All of it, and more. But you can’t be like that, okay? I need you to be better.”

“I don’t know how to  _ do  _ that,” Paige sobbed.

“Because you’re young. And there’s going to be so much for you to learn about yourself. But, Paige, you’re going to lose people. That's just... it's part of growing up. It’s not just death, it’s falling out of touch with a friend, or a bad breakup. And sometimes it’s going to feel unfair, and it’s going to hurt, but you’re going to need to let them go, and that’s when you’ll know what loss feels like. Like, actual loss." Diana smiled and wiped a tear from her eye. "And it's going to hurt, and you can't change that. And if you try... that's where the trouble starts. But you have me here to help you through it. And you have Lichen. And Windswept. And your teammates. You have all of us. So don't you for one second think you're a monster. Look at you—I mean, you're decoupaging candle holders for your mom."

"They’re not very good," Paige said sadly.

"Can we make an agreement?" Diana asked.

"What?"

"If I ever notice you turning into a crazy revenge-obsessed monster, I'll let you know. And in return, you keep being the person you were supposed to be. Okay?"

"Do you promise?" Paige asked, sniffling. "Do you promise you won't let me become like... that?"

"I pinky promise." Diana extended her little finger. "Paige, no matter what happens, I'll always be here for you. There’s no Flashpoint without Boom. There’s no Diana without Paige."

"Okay." Paige curled her pinky finger around Diana's. "Do you want to, um... make a candle holder with me?"

"There is nothing else I'd like to do," Diana said. "So, these magazines: do they have any fashion models? Because I might recognize them. Or we could look at maybe some, um,” she held up another magazine, “‘Tractors Incorporated’ models?"

"I have Better Gardens and Houses," Paige said. "It's my mom's favorite."

"Works for me. I think I’m going to make something for Lichen." 

  
  
  


After the meeting with Diana, Lichen, and Rory adjourned, Windswept calmly excused herself to her room, shut the door behind her, and then crumpled against her wall and began to cry. The crying was not really cause for concern to her—she did that every night. But this time, it felt different. She had not slept the night before; she was haunted by the images of the children Baba Yaga had conjured. Who were they? How many disappearances did they not know about? How many people did they not help? And in the wake of that, she felt smaller. She felt diminished and weak. And that great chasm that had been opened up in her mind had demanded addressing, so she crumpled against the wall and sobbed.

However, there was a problem: Windswept had left her phone on the counter in the common area’s kitchen. And who knew who was trying to reach her? She needed to get her phone, and it was very late; surely everyone had gone home, or was in their respective quarters. Still sniffling, she darted out into the kitchen to retrieve it, and—

“Windswept?” Windswept looked over to see Diana by the wet bar, holding a bottle of bourbon with a confused look on her face. “Are you okay?”

“I’m fine.” Windswept turned away from her, wiping her eyes. “I’m  _ fine. _ I just forgot my phone, that’s all.”

“Are you… are you crying?”

“No! No, I mean. I’m fine.” Windswept turned to her and smiled in demonstration. “I’m fine.”

“Oh. Well, um,” Diana hefted the bottle in demonstration, “I don’t know if you had any plans for tonight, but I just finished making votive candle holders with Paige, and I was going to fix myself a drink and catch up on The Q Word. You’re, um, you’re welcome to join me if you want.”

Windswept didn’t know what made her say yes; she shouldn’t have. But she did, and found herself sitting on Diana’s couch in her quarters, trying to ignore the empty takeout boxes scattered around her.

“So, I don’t know if you’ve watched any of The Q Word,” Diana said brightly, “but in season four, Jenny’s ex-girlfriend, Marcia, has a brain tumor, and they want to reconcile, but Marcia’s best friend, Sandy, wants to tell Marcia how she really feels about her, so they—”

“Diana, I’m sorry,” Windswept interrupted. “Can I ask you kind of a personal question?”

“Sure,” Diana replied, perplexed.

“Why… why did you decide to become a supervillain?” Windswept, probably unintentionally, was looking very hard at Diana.

Diana stopped, sighed, and leaned back in her seat, pouring herself a very substantial serving of liquor. Finally, she set the bottle down, considered her glass for a moment, and spoke. “My ex-girlfriend was a real bitch.” She downed the glass in one swallow, and refilled it.

“Hephaesta,” Windswept said. “I remember both of you. Back when you were Hestia.”

“Yeah; we did cross paths, didn’t we?” Diana smiled ruefully, and took a very long pull off of her glass of bourbon. “When we got together, Nick made it very clear to me that she was the best I was ever going to do. And I believed her.”

“Isn’t this the same woman who put you in the hospital for a week? I mean, I don’t mean to be invasive, but I was there. Rory was there. She punctured one of your lungs.”

“Well, I mean, I never knew my dad, my mom kicked me out when I came out to her, I traveled a lot, so I had no set group of friends… I was aching to have someone say they loved me. And I really did think she was the best I could do. And, I don’t know,” Diana refilled her glass, “when the person you love has a mold they need you to fit into, you start carving off pieces of yourself to make yourself fit. And you carve, and you carve, until you don’t really recognize yourself anymore. And that’s what I did.” Diana shrugged. “I didn’t know who I was anymore. Not until I met Paige.”

Windswept looked over, and realized Diana was crying. She smiled, and wiped her eyes with the back of her hand. “Diana,” Windswept said, “I’m sorry. I—I don’t need to hear anything else if you don’t want to.”

“No, it’s okay.” Diana took another long pull off her glass. “You should know, right? We work together now. But… I don’t know. You’re okay with going by Windswept. I still can’t get behind just being Flashpoint; not when I’m still trying to figure out how to be Diana.”

“You’re better with the kids than I am,” Windswept blurted out. “You’re… you do better with them.”

“Are you—” Diana leaned forward, furrowing her brow at Windswept. “Are you admitting you’re not perfect at something?”

“No! No! Well, not totally, but… they seem to trust you more. That’s why I asked.” Windswept shrugged, looking down at her knees. “I mean, you and Pippa, and Getup, and Beep Boop… but you and Paige, especially; you trust each other. Getup doesn’t have that with me.”

“That may be on Getup,” Diana said. “But, hey, look, you’re better than me at just about everything else. You’re pretty obviously the brains of the operation here. I’m just, like, the office drunk.”

“You don’t have to be,” Windswept replied. “You—I saw it in you. You can be more than that.”

“I can be more than that like I didn’t see you crying in the kitchen earlier.” Diana replied dryly. “So look, let me fix you a drink, and we can pretend like this conversation never happened.”

“Oh, no.” Windswept demurred. “Alcohol is a depressant, and I don’t consume those. The speed, you see.”

“Have you considered it?” Diana asked, downing her glass of bourbon.

“I wouldn’t like to.”

“Fair.” Diana refilled her glass. “Well, like I was saying: Sandy wants to tell Marcia how she feels about her, but Sandy’s ex-girlfriend, Ashley, is trying to make amends. So…”

Windswept listened to Diana talk, and for reasons she was not ready to address, she felt at ease. Eventually, they settled on Diana’s couch and began watching The Q Word, and Diana was only too enthusiastic to answer Windswept’s questions about the winding plot. And, finally, Windswept realized she’d fallen asleep on Diana’s couch only after she’d woken up on it in the early hours in the morning. A blanket had been pulled over her, and a pillow had been gently inserted under her head. In the adjacent room, she could hear Diana’s soft, rhythmic breathing as she slept.

Windswept felt compelled to leave her a note, but what was the point? She’d see her tomorrow. She gently rose, folded the blanket, and paused at the threshold of Diana’s bedroom. She was in a deep sleep on her bed, one arm extended over her spare pillow, her face at peace, her thick black hair pooled around her head like water at night. In this moment of stillness, after the fighting, the chaos, and the tears, she was actually beautiful.

Windswept felt something in her stomach; a feeling she didn’t want to acknowledge. She straightened up the couch, placed a few of the more onerous takeout containers in the garbage as a thank-you gesture, and left. A gentle silence extended over Tark Tower, and, for a brief flicker, Windswept seemed okay as she crawled into her own bed, trying not to think of how it didn’t fit her; trying not think about Diana’s face as she slept, or how she’d placed her hand over hers in the hangar, or how it had felt when she’d had her arm around her waist on the service ladder. Windswept had looked into Diana's eyes, too—almond-shaped and citrine-colored. She thought about how she'd never noticed the light dusting of freckles on Diana's face, and how she'd only noticed them before she'd gotten that close. And then she buried her face into her own pillow, and sobbed.

And everything was as it should be in the early hours of Tark Tower.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading!


End file.
